Award ceremony celebrates Pat on the Back winners

Pat on the Back Awards have been presented to winners and runners-up from across Blackburn and Darwen at a special ceremony.

The awards, organised on behalf of the Local Public Sevice Board, were set-up to recognise the people who make a difference in the borough.

Winners include a team established to tackle burglary in the borough, a running group that is attracting hundreds of people each week and a school uniform recycling initiative to help families most in need.

A short video to highlight the work of all the winners was shown to guests at the ceremony held at Blackburn College.

Councillor Kate Hollern, Chair of Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Public Service Board, said:

“The judging panels were humbled to see the sheer amount of nominations which have highlighted the excellent work, dedication and tenacity that people have shown working across the public and voluntary sector.

“All of those people and teams that were nominated should be extremely proud of themselves.

“I would like to thank everybody who took the time out to nominate – we received a total of 160 nominations across the nine categories – all of which were deserving of an award in their own right.”

Each winner or winning team received £600, runners-up will get £300, to spend on improving their already service or to donate to a local charity.

Caroline Fotios, of Mum’s the Word, a charity which focuses on keeping textiles out of landfill, said:

“We were delighted to win the award. We weren’t expecting to win because there’s so many other deserving people and causes out there who are doing good things.”

Winners and runners-up can be found on the Pat on the back website.